Investigators dig for additional remains after a skull was found under the roots of a toppled tree on the New Haven Green that has been dated back to the late 1700's. On the left is State Archeologist Nick Bellantoni and Gary Aronsen, right, a Biological Anthropologist from Yale. Peter Casolino/New Haven Register

Greenberg, a collector of New Haven historic artifacts who lives near the Green, came over Tuesday night to join in all the excitement surrounding the rare find.

"It was surreal," he said. "You had the full moon and spotlights. It was Indiana Jones-like. There were a lot of people here."

Greenberg Wednesday recalled that scene as he again stood on the Green with a crowd of gawkers, watching three experts dig around the massive trunk, sifting through the dirt.

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The trio included Connecticut State Archaelogist Nicholas Bellantoni, who said they were recovering coffin nails and body fragments that are being turned over to the office of the state's chief medical examiner for analysis.

Greenberg, who has researched the history of the Green, especially its use as a mass burial ground during colonial times, is convinced the investigators have found the remains of more than one individual.

"If they go down lower, they're going to start hitting lots of bodies," he said. "When do you stop?"

But Bellantoni said they won't dig any lower than about two feet. He said there "could be more than one body."

"I'm just shocked it (the site of the body fragments) is so shallow," he added.

The initial remains -- a skull, spine and rib cage -- were found in the base of the tree. The discovery was made Tuesday afternoon by Katie Carbo, one of the protesters of Occupy New Haven, an encampment on the Green that began last October and continued until they were evicted in the spring.

Greenberg said this was also ironic. "When they were here, I warned them they were desecrating a cemetery."

Greenberg believes the bodies with the tree were buried there during the late 1700s. In 1797 the Grove Street Cemetery was established and the headstones and a few of the bodies were moved there. But up to 5,000 bodies are still beneath the Green.

"The tree's root system brought the bones up," Greenberg said. "As the tree fell over, any bodies underneath the roots came up with it."

Greenberg was mourning the loss of "this magnificent 'Lincoln Tree.'" He said it was planted in 1909 to mark the 100th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birth.

"It's ironic," Greenberg said, "that this tree falls and unearths skulls and skeletons two days before Halloween. All these crazy things came together."

He said that before the body parts were found, he had been looking for Lincoln pennies that might have been buried with the tree.

Watching the forensic experts digging around the trunk, Greenberg scoffed at the yellow "crime scene" tape that police had erected around the site. "This isn't a crime scene," he said. "It's history."

"I'm happy that this happened," he added, "because it got people into the mystery of the New Haven Green."

"So many things have happened on this Green," he noted, and the skeletons add to the mystery. "It's almost like opening a box that you can never close. Almost like the unknown solder in Arlington."

Greenberg was carrying a binder full of historic photos depicting the Green's history. One of the shots from 1912 showed two small trees; Greenberg said one of them was the "Lincoln Tree."

Greenberg speculated the forensic experts might determine the recovered bodies show traces of smallpox or yellow fever, two epidemics that raged through the region in the late 1700s. He said the many victims often were "dragged out in the middle of the night, wrapped in a sheet" and buried in unmarked graves. "We don't know who is there. They were just trying to get them into the ground."

Bellantoni took a break to say the goal is to come up with "demographic information" such as the age, sex and perhaps cause of death.

After the fragments are sent to the state medical examiner for further analysis, Bellantoni said, "We'll see that they're properly re-buried."

Working alongside him were Dr. Gary Aronsen, a biological anthropologist with the Yale Department of Anthropology, and Daniel Forrest, staff archaeologist for the state Office of Historical Preservation.

Aronsen said he too will analyze the remains to try to identify their sex, age and cause of death. "I'm looking for disease indicators and indications of trauma."

When he arrived at the scene Tuesday night, Aronsen recalled, "There were dozens of people hooting and hollering."

Asked about the appropriateness of doing this work so close to Halloween, Aronsen said, "I work with skeletons and bodies all the time. For me, every day is Halloween."